A busy day

It's been a busy day...  Baking and planting.  The planting doesn't really show - the Venus Flytrap seeds are tiny!

Venus Flytrap seeds - image courtesy of Hampshire Carnivorous Plants

So, I've planted them after standing the growing medium in the pots for 36 hours in rainwater as per the instructions.  

The growing medium after standing in rainwater

The seeds have been scattered across the serface - now comes the waiting game... The seeds can take anywhere from 10 days to several weeks to grow, and it's pot luck as to which variety of VFT I get.  Not that I mind - I love the challenge of growing the seeds...  

I seem to have the knack of getting awkward carnivorous plant seeds to grow... I can get Sarracenia seeds sprouting without problems - but I guess leaving them in the 'fridge for 6 months in damp sphagnum moss does the trick... I know it's a long term project, as these plants don't really mature for 4 / 5 years - but it's worth it.

As for the baking - three lots of biscuits.  Triple chocolate cookies, vanilla biscuits and sweet mix spice biscuits. 

Triple chocololate chip, Sweet mix spice and vanilla

They're easy to make, and I know what's in them, so there are no nasty nuts to worry about for me.  

Ah well, time to call this quits - I want to listen to my audiobook.

Back when I get chance...

Karen

It’s the time to make your play

Take the rose today

It’s the time to have your say

Take the whole bouquet

Have no regrets and don’t keep hanging on

Now all your yesterdays are gone

Trying to grow Venus Flytraps from seed

As those who know me well know, I love my carnivorous plants.  But, there's one problem...  The government is looking to ban peat from being used in compost..  And my monsters grow in.... Peat.  

But one nursery Wacks Wicked Plants is offering Venus Flytrap growing kits - in two versions.  Peat (the normal growing media) and peat free (the new variety growing media).

Taking the media out of the boxes (very helpfully labelled so I knew which was which) I placed them in the supplied pots and labelled them, thinking I wouldn't know which was which... But that hasn't been the case.

The media is visibly different. The peat based compost is the dark brown with the usual perlite mixed in.

The peat free? Well I am glad I knew it was compost. It looks nothing like the compost I am used to when repotting my monsters... It looked like someone had emptied a bottle of bleach over the compost.

I’ve labelled the two pots so I know which is which once they are fully hydrated and will plant (ok carefully place) the seeds on the top once the compost is ready... Then let the experiment begin!

Growing media - peat with red lables, peat free with green

The pots are standing in a saucer of rainwater in a minimally heated (frost proofed) south facing conservatory, so light won’t be an issue as these seeds need lots of light to sprout...

I’ll update on a weekly basis and give my honest (and hopefully) unbiased opinion. And no – Wacks *didn’t* ask me to do this – this is my interest in my beloved monsters...

Time to call this quits – got to go and work on my other passion... My car.

Back with updates tomorrow – the planting!

Karen

I gave no thought to wisdom

It all but vanished in the haze

This fragile hand of fortune

Had changed and turned it all to grey